05 October 2007

The Other Face of Facebook

Well, this is disturbing. For some reason I thought Facebook was more than just a MySpace for grownups. To allow, to encourage, to facilitate, the theft of identities shows an utter disregard for its members. Unless they can get this straightened out, the future of Facebook is uncertain.

Facebook Privacy Settings Putting Users At Risk -- Facebook Privacy -- InformationWeek
. . . more than 421,000 members in New York, 866,000 members in the Toronto area, and 476,000 in Vancouver, the social networking site can be extremely enticing for cybercriminals looking for prey. The Sophos study showed that 54% of users in the London network show their full date of birth, which is key information for identity thieves. Approximately 12,000 Londoners even give out their phone number to more than a million strangers.

The Press Association: ID fraud warning for Facebook users
Members of Facebook could be putting themselves at risk of identity fraud, experts have warned. Three-quarters of users on the website's London network allow their profiles to be viewed by any other member, a snapshot survey by IT security firm Sophos found. This makes their personal details available to thousands of Facebook users regardless of whether they are friends or strangers.
Advertising Age
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office said it is investigating safety measures at Facebook after its investigators went undercover as under-age users of the social-networking service and were repeatedly sexually solicited.

2 comments:

DewKnight said...

I've been online so long and so much of my information is either already out there, or has to be out there, that I don't worry too much about putting public info out anymore. If they want my number, they're going to get my number.

Talia said...

I find facebook very inflexible. They make it very difficult if you want to change your name or other key profile details to protect your identity and insist on you using your real full name. I've cancelled my membership

here from BC

Related Posts with Thumbnails